26 Sep 1922: Massacre on Saturday, Ogden Standard Examiner

MASSACRE ON SATURDAY

At a conference in London Balfour announced he had information that a general massacre of Greeks and Armenians in Smyrna was to occur on next Saturday.

If the Turks carry out their plans of annihilation of the helpless refugees in the destroyed city, there should be some concerted action by the powers to inflict punishment on the butchers.

But the Turk has been committing these outrages over a long period of time and always he has escaped without paying a penalty, except at the end of the world war when he was reduced in territorial rights. Now he is about to recover his provinces and that will encourage him to go on with his massacres.

Long ago the Turk would have been placed in a straightjacket had the European powers avoided quarrelling over the division of Turkey. The present aggressive move of the Turk has been made possible by the greed of Great Britain and France. Both countries have been maneuvering to control great areas of the dismembered empire and disappointment has prompted the French to attempt to check the aggressions of Great Britain. Had neither country sought to greatly profit by the breaking up of the Sultan’s domain, the Turks would have been held in restraint and there would have been no massacres.